1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for juice or mineral water formed by a blow molding method or the like, which is referred to as stretch blow molding, injection blow molding, or generally PET blow molding, and more particularly to a container whose lengthwise size can be reduced (capacity can be reduced) after the content is drunk up and the contraction method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Production of synthetic resin bottles has been considerably increasing in recent years. However, after juice or mineral water in a container body is drunk up, the container body is discarded with a shape thereof remaining as before drinking up. When the container body is discarded in a trash can, the trash can is soon filled as if air were discarded therein, and finally the container body is left on a road, deteriorating life environments. In addition, costs for collecting drained container bodies and labor costs for cleaning place a heavy burden on public works.
Although this kind of synthetic resin bottle can be manufactured by simple means such as blow molding, it cannot sufficiently resist strong vibrations of automobiles or other transportation means or stacking for display at a store.
Furthermore, while the container is transported from a container manufacturer to a bottler of juice or mineral water, the container body is bulky as if air were transported, requiring considerably high costs for transporting the product.
Thus, the inventor of the application has suggested a liquid container that can be easily contracted when drained and collected. The liquid container is made of relatively soft synthetic resin, and a body thereof has a bellows peripheral wall with a top tap (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-213418, Abstract).
In addition, the inventor has suggested applying a load on a container body in a perpendicular direction and/or a twisting direction to cause contraction of the capacity, means for keeping the contracted shape, and the container body (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-68156, Abstract). However, both of the above suggestions cannot achieve a reduced height and sufficient contraction of the container to keep the contracted state when the container body is collapsed.